A recent case illustrated poor management of a dispute.
Neighbour 1 and Neighbour 2 owned neighbouring holiday homes on the NSW coast. There was an old brick wall about one meter high on Neighbour 2’s property near their common boundary.
In 2006, Neighbour 1 realised that the wall was leaning into his property so he approached Neighbour 2 about getting it repaired. Neighbour 2 offered to replace the wall but before receiving a response Neighbour 2 built a high timber fence. This only caused more damage, eventually spilling a pile of about 25-30 bricks into Neighbour 1’s property. Neighbour 2 went onto Neighbour 1’s property and removed the bricks.
After much angry letter writing, Neighbour 1 sued Neighbour 2 for compensation for the overhanging wall and the pile of bricks, and for compensation for the three occasions on which Neighbour 2 trespassed on Neighbour 1’s property (including the time when Neighbour 2 removed the pile of bricks!).
The judge ordered that the wall be removed and awarded a grand total of $220 in damages being $200 for the pile of bricks landing in Neighbour 1’s yard and the unauthorised entry to remove them, and a further $20 for the overhanging bit of fence. The Judged made some scathing comments describing the claims as “a fuss about nothing” and “quite literally unacceptable” because the costs were tens of thousands of dollars for legal fees, plus the cost of landscapers’ and engineers’ reports.
Suing in any Court should be a last resort (let alone litigation in the highest Court in the state). This was a relatively simple dispute which could have been resolved justly, quickly and inexpensively through proper negotiation or mediation.